Bumrah the greatest ever? Hmmm!

The brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah has given rise to the question of who is the greatest fast bowler of all timeMichael Vaughan Englandrsquos 2005Ashes winning captain reckons the Indian pacer is the finest fast bowler he has seen The Yorkshireman is known for making overthetop statements but he has seen a lot of international cricket as a player and broadcaster to get people to agree with his assessmentBumrah tops the heap with a superior average among all fast bowlers to have claimed more than 200 wickets and thatrsquos an impressive stat to go in his favourCricket has seen some great fast bowlers The Australians will point to Dennis Lillee as their greatest Jeff Thomson will be rated as the quickest of fast men And Ray Lindwall who bowled for Australia in the Don Bradman era and beyond was considered a great one too But Lilleersquos remarkable tenacity which he displayed while overcoming a careerthreatening back injury in 1973 put him ahead of other Australians when it came to the lsquobestrsquo category Lillee was told by his doctor that hersquod never bowl again He refused to accept that worked his way through a tough and innovative recovery process and ended up being the highest wickettaker in Test cricket by the time he quit in 198384 Yes he went wicketless in his first two Tests on the subcontinent vs Pakistan in 197980 claimed three in the final Test of that series and returned with only three wickets in the oneoff Test on the 198283 tour of Sri Lanka when offspinner Bruce Yardley bowled Australia to an innings victoryExperts teammates and adversaries rate Lilleersquos bowling partner Jeff Thomson as the quickest theyrsquove faced along with Michael HoldingThe West Indies had a battery of fine fast bowlers before and after the famous quarters of the 1970s and 1980s Curtly Ambrose was big mean and unplayable at times His partner in prime Courtney Walsh was blooded in 1984 when the West Indies still had Michael Holding Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall were still around and he picked the right brains for him to claim 519 Test scalps Walsh was a onetime record holder but it is believed that Marshall was better than the rest Wes Hall an alltime great fast bowler himself said in 1999 the year Marshall succumbed to cancer that his fellow Barbadian was the greatest fast bowler of all timeAfter all the Bajan dismissed a legion of quality batsmenDr Rudi Webster like Hall has seen a factory full of fast bowlers through the years in his roles as manager and psychologist of West Indies teams Dr Webster told me earlier this week that Marshall was the best in his time but Bumrah is the greatest ever Mind you Dr Webster was also a fast bowler who claimed 200plus wickets for Warwickshire county whom he served from 1962 to 1966How can fast bowling greatness be dwelled upon without the mention of Fred Trueman the first bowler to claim 300 wickets Scyld Berry the incisive cricket writer from England told us only the other day what Trueman said when his biographer John Arlott asked for title suggestions for a biography he was writing on Trueman ldquoThe finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breathrdquo suggested Trueman Of course the book was just called Fred Portrait of a Fast Bowler by John ArlottAnother Englishman mdash Sydney Barnes mdash was placed in the great category In 27 Tests from 1901 to 1914 he claimed 189 wickets at 1643 Had he been less of a moody cricketer he would have been on the 190304 tour of Australia according to John Woodcock in the book One Hundred Greatest Cricketers ldquoHe played when he wanted and said what he likedrdquo wrote WoodcockThe late Richie Benaud included Barnes in his best World XI DVD the rest being Jack Hobbs Sunil Gavaskar Don Bradman Sachin Tendulkar Viv Richards Imran Khan Garfield Sobers Adam Gilchrist Shane Warne and LilleeWhen it comes to the Asian countries popular opinion says Wasim Akram is the greatest Pakistani fast bowler Batsmen in team meetings spent hours discussing how to tackle him but it had no effect the next day And while we justifiably think the world of Bumrah letrsquos not forget 434wicket man Kapil Dev Ditto Chaminda Vaas whose 355Test wicket tally is the best from a Sri Lanka fast bowlerDale Steyn tops the list of most successful South Africa pacers with 439 wickets in 93 Tests while when it comes to New Zealanders one cannot see many people disagreeing over Richard Hadlee being their greatest fast bowler the first man to scale Peak 400 ldquoThere can be no higher praise than to say that Hadlee bears comparison with Dennis Lillee Both usually made the ball leave the righthander and both were blessed with classical smooth sideon actions which enabled them to bowl for long spells over a period of yearsrdquo wrote Imran Khan in All Round View a sentiment shared by David Gower in his book Heroes amp ContemporariesCurrent leader of the pack Jimmy Andersonrsquos Test 704 wickets is an unbelievable tally which will take a superhuman effort to surpass Bumrah has 210 Test wickets in just 46 TestsConsidering the rigours of currentday cricket that includes IPL appearances it will be tough for the great Indian to match Andersonrsquos wicket tallyWhether there will be a chorus for Bumrah being the greatest is to be seen but itrsquos remarkable that an Indian fast bowler is in the conversationmiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper